Sunday, June 14, 2015

Ebenezer Brown and Ann Weaver

Ebenezer Brown Treasures of Pioneer History, Vol. 4, p. 434

Ebenezer
Brown was born in New York, December 6, 1802, the eighth child of
William and Hannah Sweet Brown. The family moved to Crawford County,
Pennsylvania where he spent much of his boyhood helping to clear heavily
timbered land for farming.

On July 20, 1823 he married Ann Weaver
by whom he had five children. He was baptized into the Latter-day
Saints Church in 1835, and soon after, he with his family and a brother,
William, came west with the Saints to Ohio and later to Missouri.
Finally they settled in Quincy, Illinois where on the 20th of July, 1842
his wife died, leaving four children. Later he married a widow, Phebe
Draper Palmer.

Ebenezer Brown was among the five hundred men who
answered the call of the Mormon Battalion. His wife, Phebe, went along
with them as laundress. His eldest daughter was married and the boys,
Guernsey, Norman and John were left in her care. He was Second Sergeant
in Company A.

After enduring the pangs of hunger and thirst,
footsore from walking many miles without covering for their feet, making
roads and building bridges as they went, they at last reached their
destination. Gold having been found in California, he, with others,
stayed there to work to get means to come on to Salt Lake. He arrived in
Salt Lake the latter part of 1849 and found his family there to meet
him.

In 1850 they came to Draper, then called South Willow Creek,
where he built the first home. He was also the first postmaster and
served in the first bishopric. He passed away January 26, 1878 a
faithful and fearless Latter-day Saint leader. — Eunice Waibeck

There is a bit more to Ebenezer's story. He and his wife Ann were a part of the Dryden, New York community in the early 1800's so they would have most likely known the David Foote and Irene Lane family also of Dryden and my ancestors. Ebenezer and Ann are ancestors of my husband, Glen. He was not only called and accepted into the Mormon Battalion but brought theEbenezer Brown Companyback to the Salt Lake Valley. Click on the previous link to see more. I am including a history of his second wife, Phebe Draper Palmer, who also marched with the Battalion as it is also Ebenezer's history. If you visit the revamped visitor center about the Mormon Battalion in San Diego, California, you will find that Phebe and her youngest son, Zemira, are highlighted in the presentation.

Phebe Draper Palmer Brownfrom the book Ebenezer Brown and Descendants

Phebe Draper Palmer Brown, the daughter of William and Lydia Lothrap
Draper, was born in Rome, Oneida County, New York on October 9, 1797. The
Drapers originally came from England to America in 1645 locating near
Boston. The family spread through the New England states. In 1800,
Thomas Draper and wife moved to Canada. His son, William, had left New
York and settled in Pennsylvania.

Phebe married George Palmer in
1815 in Canada when she was eighteen years old. To them were born seven
children, Lovina, Osahel, William, Eliza, Lydia, Zemira and Rhoda. They
joined the Church in 1833 and gathered with the Saints in Kirtland,
Ohio. George died in 1835, leaving her with these small children. In the
year 1836, Joseph Smith, Sr., gave her a blessing of comfort and
promise. He told her if she was faithful and wise she would be blessed
with a companion who would be a man of God, and that she would be able
to bring up her family right; that she would have good, happy days.

She
suffered the hardships of the Saints, being driven from Kirtland to
Missouri, and from Missouri to Quincy, Illinois, where the one promise
of her blessing was fulfilled by her marriage to Ebenezer Brown in 1842,
his wife having died and left him with a family of four children. They
were driven from their comfortable homes into the wilderness, where they
were camping in the year 1846. The call came from the government for
five hundred of their best men to fight in the war with Mexico. The men
were gathered at Council Bluffs, Iowa, where they left from, and were
known as the Mormon Battalion. Ebenezer Brown enlisted. His wife, Phebe,
also went as a laundress. She made many of the soldiers' burdens
lighter by her kindness to them. They were mustered out of service in
San Diego, California, March 14, 1848.

Mr. Brown's younger
children were left in care of a married daughter, Harriet, wife of
Oliver Stratton. They arrived in the Valley before the parents.

Gold
being discovered in California, the parents being without money,
decided to stay and wash out gold. She helped wash gold herself to help
them on their journey back to the Saints who had gathered in Utah. She
rode a mule (whose name was Ginny), all the way from California. In
1849, Brother Brown settled in Draper. She moved from Salt Lake in the
spring of 1850 with the rest of the children, they being the first
family to settle in Draper.

In 1853, her husband married Samantha
Pulsipher, and in 1854, he married Mary Elizabeth Wright. In 1870, Mary
died, leaving a family of small children, which Phebe took care of,
making three families she raised, her own and two of her husband's. She
acted as first postmistress of Draper, held a position in the Relief
Society and was a faithful member. She was a well read woman and had a
fair education for that time. Her husband, Ebenezer Brown, died in 1878.
She lived in Draper until her death on February 28, 1879, being 82
years of age, a faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints.

Now back to Ann Weaver, the first wife of Ebenezer. A grave marker has been placed in the Draper City Cemetery in her honor. There
is a discrepancy with the headstone. It shows her born in 1805 and the
history shows 1806. The headstone was placed in the Draper cemetery
next to Ebenezer even though she is buried in Illinois. It gives the
family a place to leave flowers and honor her.

Ann
Weaver
This information comes from, The Faith of Phoebe, by Beverly Thompson

Ann Weaver was born August 5, 1806 in Saratoga County, New York. Her
father John Weaver is of the line of the New England Weaver Family who
settled in Rhode Island in the early 1620's. The ancestry of her
mother, Catherine Reasoner, has not been found. Ann was one of thirteen
children, she being the seventh child and the fifth daughter. Her family
had moved to the Dryden area much the same time as Ebenezer's Family.

Ann
Weaver married Ebenezer Brown as his first wife 23 July, 1823 when he
was twenty years old and she had not yet reached her seventeenth
birthday.

She had five children; Joseph Gurnsey and Harriet while
in New York, Norman while in Pennsylvania, and John Weaver and infant
daughter Ann while in Illinois.

Ann died 24 June 1842 in Quincy,
Illinois, where she was buried on Honey Creek. A marker, however has
been placed beside Ebenezer's in the Draper Cemetery.

Ann died right after giving birth to her last baby. The baby was placed in Ebenezer's arms where the baby died. Ebenezer
told Phoebe Draper Palmer, who was the midwife and a friend of the
family. " This little girl will be named Ann after her Mother." Ann was
buried with her baby daughter, Ann, in her arms on Honey Creek.

For a more detailed history of Ebenezer written by his son, John Weaver Brown, go here.For even more enlightenment go here for the history of his son, Norman Brown.

1 comment:

Anonymous
said...

Thanks for this. My daughter recently began dating a young man in the LDS church. My grandmother was raised Mormon in Hurricane, Utah but left the faith in 1934 upon marrying my grandfather in Las Vegas, NV. In looking into some genealogical records, I determined that Ebenezer Brown was my 5th Great Grandfather. I had been told that I had an ancestor that blazed the westward trail with Joseph Smith and then Brigham Young but was not fully aware (or interested maybe) of just what an important man he was for the LDS movement. The history I researched on the internet was amazing and your blog identified where he is buried and the statue in Draper. My daughter's boyfriend's parents are not going to believe this! It will definitely make for some interesting conversation.